


Some Things Never Change

by Lokisgame



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Crossover, F/M, Fluff and Humor, what if
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-05-13 00:45:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19240417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lokisgame/pseuds/Lokisgame
Summary: Neo looked at the bantering couple, trying to get his jaw off the floor.





	Some Things Never Change

It was his first time in Zion, and the first thing that struck him, were the people, there were so many of them. All races, all ages, some with sockets in their heads and arms, some without. He followed Trinity through levels filled with life, with all its' scents and debris and usual everyday stuff. They went through living quarters, with lines of laundry hanging everywhere. They passed something like a market, where street vendors, for lack of a better word, sold food and hand made goods. Countless units were turned into workshops, manufacturing everything, from crafted spoons and pots to shoemakers and tailors, making and mending shoes and clothes. Everywhere, clients haggled for better deals, exchanging whatever they had for whatever they needed.  
"Man, some things never change." He murmured to himself, but she caught it.  
"Keep up." Trinity smiled and took his hand, pulling him through the crowd. 

Three levels up, the elevator doors opened to a wide walkway, and he followed Trinity dutifully, though looking around curiously. He noticed mothers with kids waiting in chairs along the wall, the elderly and the injured, while men and women in almost white robes, walked among them, sorting them depending on the urgency and severity of their illnesses. It looked just like an emergency room, only more ragged.  
"We fixed you as well as we could when we found you, but every new freed citizen, must undergo full physical and psychological checkup."  
She looked over her shoulder and gave him a smile, or rather the corners of her eyes crinkled lightly, which for Trinity, amounted to the same thing.  
"Don't worry, it won't take long."  
"You have a med school down here too?"  
Trinity huffed out a small laugh and paused in front of unremarkable doors, knocking lightly. A female voice called for them to come in.  
"I'm telling you, Scully, it was real!"  
"Mulder, internet isn't good for you."  
"Doctor?"  
"Hello Trinity."  
A small, red-haired woman got up from behind a desk, and the man she was talking to turned around, swivelling in his chair.  
"Zion's finest! Have't seen you around here in ages!" He cheered.  
"Which is a good thing." The woman finished for him.  
Neo looked at the bantering couple, trying to get his jaw off the floor.  
"We have a new crew member." Trinity said then turned to him, "Neo, this is Doctor Scully and Doctor Mulder."  
"I," he began, trying not to stare at the faces he watched on tv for what felt like forever.  
"Here it comes," the man, who looked like Mulder said, folding his arms over his chest, "c'mon, say it."  
"You were characters! On tv!"  
"We have a fan." Mulder chuckled.  
"We get that a lot." The one who looked just like Scully, if her hair was allowed to grow and her freckles to show, took Neo by the elbow, leading him to a nearby cot.  
"Sit down, let me look at you."  
"And breath, you're not crazy." Mulder said, turning a monitor to himself and began typing. It seemed to be wirelessly connected to a scanner that Scully ran over Neo's arms. Tip of the device touched each socket, and a new readout popped up on the screen. "Connections look okay." He said and Scully nodded.  
"Turn around and take off your shirt." Scully said, picking up a different instrument, one that looked more like a soldering iron. "This will feel a little tingly."  
"How does that work?" Neo asked, feeling a tickle skipping up his spine. "You guys were inside, weren't you?"  
"We were. Mainline?" Scully asked and Mulder whistled.  
"Wow, 99.9%."  
"Check again."  
"I did." Scully glanced over her shoulder to the screen, which Mulder turned for her to see, then they both looked at Trinity. She gave them a little nod.  
"What?" Neo asked.  
"Neuron network responsible for the input-output loop is very dense."  
"Think of it as having more bandwidth than anyone else."  
"What does that mean in here?"  
"It means, theoretically," Scully explained, "when logged in, you can process more data and do it faster, than others, giving you quicker reflexes and making your perception sharper. Possibly, even let you reprogram the matrix in close enough range."  
"It's a little fuzzy, how it happens, but it seems the machines wrote the code so that we can interact with it on a subconscious, instinctive level." Mulder said, typing, "You take a mug in your hand, start a subroutine with a list of actions, reach out, hand doesn't go through the mug, close hand, it's hot, it burns you, you drop the mug, it falls, run coin toss, it brakes or not."  
As Mulder spoke, Scully kept prodding at his back, lifting his arms, checking reach and movability of joints. Her hands were steady and warm, and soon she was done.  
"You can get dressed now." She patted Neo's shoulder and turned to her partner. "Look out, Mulder, someone might think you love the machines."  
"I'd call it knowing your enemy." Mulder chuckled and rolled his chair closer, taking her place.  
"So what are you saying, my brain is some kind of a super computer?" Neo asked, pulling the sweater over his head.  
"In sheep's clothing." Mulder replied, gently taking his face in his hands, tiling it back. "Open up."  
Neo opened his mouth, closed, followed the finger, squinted at the light, and listened.  
"With your potential capabilities, and awareness of the program, you could try and shape it, in real time, disrupting the pre-programmed cause-effect loops. Slow down or dodge bullets, walk through walls, even fly."  
"You're shitting me."  
"Why would I."  
"If I can do it, why no one else has tried it."  
"Oh, they tried it." Scully said, a little sad.  
"And failed, squeeze my fingers," Mulder said, holding his hands out, Neo squeezed. "Responses normal. She's the medical examiner too."  
Neo noticed the sockets, just like his own, on both of them.  
"So you guys were inside too."  
"Yeah." Mulder bumped the side of his hand just below his knee and Neo's leg kicked, "reflexes normal."  
"And you were actors? It was all just a tv show."  
"I wish," Mulder chuckled without humour, "I'd give myself a happy ending."  
"We were working for the FBI." Scully said.  
"Doctor and a psychologist, turned feds, investing the paranormal," Mulder recited in a tone of a b-movie trailer voice-over, "I'd show you my badge, but I left it in the pod." Neo laughed.  
"One day we found an artefact, and it had to be a virus of some kind, because it started to mess with the code around me, making me hear peoples' thoughts, that kind of thing. It put me in a hospital, almost catatonic from sensory overload. Then Trin found Scully."  
"And we pulled each other out." Scully finished for him, leaning against the desk.  
On a wall behind her, Neo noticed a drawing, just as the one he remembered, a UFO hovering above the tree line, bold letters at the bottom declaring 'I want to believe'  
_Old habits die hard,_ he thought. "And you guys never knew it was a TV show."  
"It was to you, for us it was life." Scully said, as Mulder pushed away, back at her side. "Maybe the machines lacked the imagination to create something as abstract as entertainment, to fill humans' need for escape, and took our story to fed it to the masses. One thing they couldn't fake though."  
"They could never tear us apart." He said, kissing her knuckles.  
There was a small knock on the door, Mulder asked who was it and a small head peeked inside.  
"Daddy?"  
"C'mere Will, we're done."  
A little boy came in and quickly scrambled into his lap. No sockets, a real child, born outside.  
"Can we go play now?" The boy asked.  
"In a second, honey." Scully said, fondly ruffling his light brown mane. "So, everything looks okay, though your muscle mass could use some work. If you find time, I'd recommend physical training, a real one."  
"It'll keep you sane, and in touch with your physical body." Mulder added. "We lost quite a few, who couldn't handle the transition, so take this one seriously."  
"Thanks." Neo chuckled, looking from Mulder to Scully.  
"What?"  
"I find it hard not to call you guys Agents."  
"I don't think anyone in here would appreciate that title, and it's not like we were really a part of the system, since we broke free."  
Scully petted Mulder's head as well, and her smile was an order of magnitude warmer than he remembered.  
Trinity nodded in thanks and reached for the door, Neo got up to follow. Mulder got up with him, keeping his son in his arms.  
"Remember Neo," he said softly, "in there, you're as strong as your beliefs. We believe in you."  
They left the little family behind, and headed back to their living quarters. In the elevator, Neo took Trinity's hand, fingers twining with hers, her words echoing in his head. _"The Matrix can not tell you who you are."_

**Author's Note:**

> For @kiwiphroot on tumblr. Happy 20th The Matrix
> 
> My unpopular headcanon is that Mulder is actually pretty smart, and if he’d let go of the paranormal, he’d probably slay in any discipline, even neurology, AI theory and IT. (I’m not as smart, don’t @me)


End file.
